Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Sonic, 23, of San Francisco, Calif., sang Sam Smith’s “Money on My Mind.” She immediately displayed great range, getting Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine to turn around. Despite high praise from Adam, she opted to join Team Christina.

Her background: Sonic says she’s been singing since age 10, even though she was deaf in one ear since age 6. Clearly, she overcame the problem because she was signed to a label at age 14 and says she did a few “mini-tours.” Today, she calls that experience “a little overwhelming” and says the image created for her was “diva-like.” After four years, her label deal ended and never yielded an album. Sonic admits that experience put her in a “low place” and it took her a while to get back into music. She also does makeup and designs jewelry, some of which she wore for her audition.

What the show didn’t show: In her Voice video, Sonic calls music her “main passion and focus.” Her musical influences are R&B/soul. In 2008, she joined a group going by the name Killer Dude which also included musicians going by the names UFO Man, Kanary and Lion. They have one song you can listen to on bandcamp.com, but Sonic says they haven’t put out a lot of music. The Voice represents her second try at a solo career. Oh, and while her stage name is Sonic, her real name is apparently Ariel Valle.

On picking Christina: “I was going with Adam before Christina, but she gave me like … she was spitting game at me. We fall into the same caliber of music. She’s very soulful; I’m very soulful.”

On iTunes: Just her audition song.

Update: Sonic was matched with Ameera Delandro in the battle round. They sang Jessie J.’s “Masterpiece.” Christina declared Sonic the winner; Ameera was eliminated. In the knockout round, she went up against Ashley Morgan. Sonic performed “A Woman’s Worth” by Alicia Keys and was declared the winner.

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